Rockets beat Clippers 102-85

Dec 3, 2009 - 6:50 AM
LOS ANGELES(AP) -- Houston coach Rick Adelman has seen quite a
transformation in his team without the injured Yao Ming and
Tracy McGrady.

The Rockets trust each other at both ends of the court and have
pushed the work ethic to another level to compensate for the
loss of their two stars. Wednesday night, Aaron Brooks made his
first eight shots and finished with 22 points in 102-85 victory
over the Los Angeles Clippers.

Houston has won consecutive games for the first time since a
three-game stretch that followed a season-opening loss at
Portland.

"For the most part, our guys have done a good job," Adelman
said. "I mean, we knew we were going to have shortcoming and we
knew we were going to be small. We lost our top three scorers
from last year, so we knew we were going to find out who was
going to be the guy who steps up. We've played a tough schedule,
we've played a lot of games on the road against good teams, and
we've responded."

Brooks was 9 for 11 from the field overall after coming in with
a shooting percentage of 43.2, third-highest on the club.

"We've done better every game that Aaron's had a big game,
because he's a guy that they have a hard time covering," Adelman
said. "But the biggest thing for our team is that we understand
that we have to play hard every game. I mean, that's an old
cliche, but that's true with us. When he don't compete every
possession and we don't compete at both ends, we're going to
struggle."

Chase Budinger scored 19 points and Trevor Ariza added 16 for
the Rockets, who outscored Los Angeles 16-3 over the final 6:52.
They shot 50.7 percent from the field, improving to 5-0 under
those circumstances.

"We're going to keep playing hard," Brooks said. "Coach knows
the pieces he's got now and he does a good job substituting, so
hopefully we'll come together and get some more wins."

Al Thornton had 19 points for the Clippers, who were 0 for 13
from 3-point range before Baron Davis ended the drought with 1.1
seconds to play. By contrast, Houston was 12 for 23 on
3-pointers.

"I'm disappointed by our mental and physical toughness," coach
Mike Dunleavy said. "When the ball is not going in the hole for
us, that's when we need to become more focused and more
determined defensively. We got outrebounded by 14 in the second
half, and that just shows they were tougher than we were.'

Houston forward Luis Scola, wearing protective goggles after
getting gouged in the right eye by Etan Thomas on Sunday at
Oklahoma City and getting seven stitches, played 28 minutes and
was 4 for 11 with eight points and seven rebounds.

Ariza picked up his fourth foul - and third in a 52-second span
- with 3:40 left in the third quarter and went to the bench with
the Rockets ahead 69-61. The Clippers outscored Houston 10-3
over the next 2 minutes to pull to 72-71, but never regained the
lead.

"We never got down on ourselves. We always stay confident,"
Ariza said. "They guys coming in made big plays defensively and
we didn't give them second-chance points."

Ariza, who came to the Rockets in the trade that sent Ron Artest
to the Lakers, came in leading Houston with an 18.2 scoring
average despite the fact that he spent most of his five previous
NBA seasons as a defensive specialist off the bench.

"I think what he's trying to figure out is that he's suddenly a
guy who's playing 39 minutes a game and the ball's in his hands
a lot. So he's got to live with the shots that he takes,"
Adelman said. "We have to work on making sure he understands
what's good and not good for him."

Los Angeles was down by four when Houston's Carl Landry made a
three-point play, Ariza followed with a 21-footer and a layup a
minute apart, Kyle Lowry added a layup and Budinger hit a
3-pointer to give the Rockets a commanding 98-82 lead with 1:47
to play.

"Where we have had most of our struggles is the fact that game
in and game out, somebody has played well and somebody else
hasn't. So when the game's on the line, you don't know who to go
to at that point," Adelman said. "I think Trevor and Aaron are
the two best guys as far as attacking the other team."

NOTES: Scola played in his 182nd consecutive game. His streak is
the seventh-longest in club history and three short of John
Lucas Jr., whose father is an assistant coach with the Clippers.
... When the Clippers host Indiana on Saturday night, Dunleavy
will tie fellow former New York coach Red Holzman for 16th place
on the NBA list for regular-season games coached at 1,300.